


Where the Skies Are Blue

by ObliqueOptimism



Series: Life in the City [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Can be read as stand alone, Gen, Homelessness, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Not Beta Read, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 08:16:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19884484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObliqueOptimism/pseuds/ObliqueOptimism
Summary: Luca Vitali didn't mean to adopt a homeless drug addicted teen but he's rather glad at how things turned out. [Can be read as stand alone]





	Where the Skies Are Blue

**Author's Note:**

> So this is officially a sequel to Sing for Me (that no one asked for) but you don't have to read it for this to make sense. Just in that was its set up that Klaus can speak all languages as part of his powers. Mostly I love Mr. Vitali and obviously writing outsider pov's where someone takes care of and worries about Klaus.

Luca Vitali saw the boy a few times before they ever spoke. He knew that Klaus thought it was the first time Luca saw him was when he called out to him, but no; he’d noticed him. Of course he did. A waif of a boy who slept behind his dumpster? Luca may have been old but he wasn’t senile. 

But then the boy thought he was being tricky and sly by buying a pack of gum but having a granola bar tucked in the back of his skirt, as if Luca wouldn’t see it. Rolling his eyes, he didn’t want to call the boy out. He’d figured out he was homeless and he needed the granola bar. All skin and bone, this one. Wasting away, like his Rosa had.

She would’ve approved of his skirt. 

Muttering to himself in his native italian, he said, “If you wanted to steal you should wear something with pockets.”

“You try finding a skirt with pockets,” the boy replied in italian as he rolled his eyes.

Luca paused, taken aback that the boy spoke italian. Clearing his throat, he said, “My daughter would have sewn some in.”

The boy shrugged, “I don’t know how to sew, and the needles I use aren’t for sewing.” He laughed at his own joke.

He wasn’t surprised by the suggestion that the boy took drugs. He could easily see the track marks on his arms. 

The boy then pulled the granola bar from behind him, “I guess I can pay for this too.” 

Luca was impressed that since he got called out he was going to own up to it. He’d owned his corner store for many years and usually the people would walk out with the merchandise anyway. He wasn’t going to fight them too much on it, not unless the people made a habit of it. A few stolen items wasn’t worth his life. 

But the kid was much too skinny, the skirt hanging low on his hips. He had a split lip, ratty shoes, fingernails painted and chipping. And it looked like all of five dollars to his name. 

Sighing deeply, face tilting upwards towards where his family was, he said a quick prayer to them. “Just take the bar and the gum, will you? No need to pay today. Special offer to italian waifs.”

The boy looked shocked. He blinked rapidly a few times, sucking in a breath. Luca watched as he processed the fact that someone was being nice to him. He saw the moment it clicked, when he got scared that it would be taken back, when he thought that maybe Luca would change his mind and call the cops instead. He muttered a quick thanks and then disappeared with his treasures so fast Luca was sure that if he hadn’t swept that day that there would be a dust cloud in the air.

The italian waif was sleeping behind his dumpster a few weeks later, huddled against the brick wall and the metal. Luca saw him after he took out his trash. Sighing, he shook the kid awake. The boy blinked slowly, having trouble waking up. Looking at his pupils Luca figured he was high on something. Eventually the boy realized Luca was looking down at him and he jumped up, speaking english, “Sorry! Sorry, sir! I’ll, uh, go somewhere else to sleep.” He started to push himself up.

Luca grabbed the boy’s shoulder before he could get far. He replied in italian, knowing that the boy knew it, “Hold on, kid, you aren’t in trouble.”

The boy turned to him, eyes squinting. Probably trying to remember Luca. He let out a quiet gasp when he made the connection, “I’m not in trouble?” He was speaking italian again.

“It’s supposed to get near freezing tonight,” Luca looked at the boy. He was still wearing the same skirt and ratty shoes, thankfully he did have long sleeves on, unlike before. But nothing covering his bare legs or hands, no coat to keep him warm. “If you promise not to steal you can sleep in the store tonight.”

“Huh?”

Luca sighed (Stella give him strength), he would rather risk the boy stealing from him again than risk finding him dead in the morning. “What’s your name?”

“Klaus.”

He idly wondered if Klaus’s family was half german and half italian.

“I’m Mr. Vitali,” Luca introduced himself. “It’s going to get too cold to sleep outside tonight. This your first winter away from home?”

Klaus nodded slowly.

“Okay, well I have a vested interest in keeping you alive. Otherwise that granola bar was lost for nothing, yes? If you promise to not steal from me you can sleep on the shop’s floor. It’s not the best but it’s better than here.”

Stella, bless her, would have yelled at him for not inviting him to the apartment, but Luca didn’t know Klaus and while he didn’t think Klaus would hurt him, he would rather Klaus end up stealing from the store than his apartment. He’d been around long enough to have made mistakes like that in the past.

Klaus thought it through, “Okay Mr. Vitali.”

Luca led Klaus inside and made him wait in the shop as he fetched blankets and a pillow for the boy. “There is a mat behind the counter. That will be comfier than the tile floor,” he said, handing over the items. 

“Do you--” Klaus paused, “Do you want anything in return?” He glanced down slightly, _pointedly_.

Luca sent another quick prayer to Stella and the kids. _Give him strength_. “I just don’t want you to steal. Nothing else.”

Klaus tilted his head, obviously confused, “Nothing?”

“A promise that if tomorrow is as cold as this that you either end up at a shelter or back here.”

“Huh.”

Luca figured Klaus wasn’t used to people being nice. Being homeless, wearing skirts, and doing drugs were not things people tended to like to see. They’d take advantage of him, and being as he was so ready to _repay_ Luca for being nice he wondered if he’d done that sort of thing before for a bed to sleep in. He looked like a child. The thought that someone would ask that of Klaus--

Stella would have given him baked goods by now, Rosa offering to sew those pockets in his skirt and Andrea would be happy to have another boy around to play pretend with.

But they have all moved on without him.

So instead Klaus is stuck with Luca, fumbling his way through helping him.

Luca watched Klaus set up a sleeping spot on the mat like was suggested and bid him goodnight. The light from the street lights coming in through the windows let Luca see Klaus settling down, trying to get comfortable. 

In the morning Klaus was gone, the blankets and pillows folded up behind the counter and as far as Luca could tell, nothing had been stolen. 

He left the blankets there in case Klaus came back the next night.

He didn’t.

But he did show up two nights later.

Luca was sure to give Klaus some more of the granola bars and some water before he stressed again that Klaus would be welcome to stay the night when it was cold out. He wanted to make sure Klaus remembered that through his drug haze as the nights were getting steadily colder. 

They continued on for about a month, Klaus coming by before the shop closed if he was staying and Luca giving him more food than just the granola bars. Klaus was too skinny and probably used any money he had on drugs before food. Then Luca was shopping for some new shoes for himself when he saw the same type of sneaker that Klaus wore. 

He’d noted the first time he saw the boy at how ratty and old his shoes were.

Guessing at the size, he bought them in black and had them behind his counter for a week before Klaus showed up, shivering from more than the cold. It was the first time since he initially invited Klaus that he thought the boy may steal from him. Withdrawals were hard on addicts (there was no denying that Klaus was an addict) and he wouldn’t be surprised if he found merchandise or money missing. 

Instead of reminding Klaus about the rule he handed over the shoes and lied about there being a buy one get one sale. 

Then he pointed to the trash can under the counter, “In case you feel sick.”

Klaus nodded as he stared down at the new shoes. Luca hoped he would accept them, his other pair had holes and it was going to snow soon. Luca had to talk Klaus into accepting actual food when he realized that he was probably just eating granola bars and nothing else for days on in, so he was prepared to have another argument with the boy about the shoes.

Thankfully Klaus nodded again, “Thank you, Mr. Vitali.”

Luca left him then, but for once he checked up on him through out the night. If he was going through withdrawal, cold turkey, that was very dangerous; but if he was actually sick, that was just as dangerous. 

One time when he checked Klaus was having a nightmare, whispering (pleading) about wanting out _please dad i’m sorry i’ll do better just let me out letmeoutletmeout_ and Luca’s heart broke. He’d figured Klaus’s parents were either awful or dead. Or both. He’d looked sixteen, seventeen at the oldest and in Luca’s experience whenever a teen ran away, there was a reason.

He bent down and lightly touched Klaus’s face, feeling the slight fever. It didn’t feel hot enough to worry about, thank God. “It’s okay, Klaus. You’re out,” he murmured, trying to calm the boy as best he could.

After Klaus calmed down, Luca went back upstairs, prepared for a quick nap before checking on him again. 

In the morning they both probably looked like shit. Luca having had little sleep and Klaus still sick. “Come, I will treat you to breakfast,” Luca told Klaus, handing over one of Rosa’s coats. It was old, smelled a bit dusty, but it went down to mid leg length and had a faux fur trim. It would help keep the boy warm. 

The boy needed some food in him. He hadn’t thrown up during the night so Luca hoped he would keep the food down. Herding Klaus towards a diner, Luca thought that maybe he was getting too attached to the drug addicted homeless teen. He’d seen what happened to kids like him on the street. He knew the pain he was going have to endure one day. 

They sat across from each other in the booth.

“I’m having waffles, what are you thinking?” Luca asked. Klaus should maybe have eggs, that would be good on a sickly stomach.

“I’ve never had waffles,” Klaus replied quietly. Quieter than usual. 

“Never?”

“It was always oatmeal at home. Sometimes eggs. But at breakfast we were to have the nourishment of oatmeal. Very bland oatmeal. Couldn’t add anything to it to make it taste good. Weekends it was eggs and bacon. But when dad wasn’t looking, sometimes mom would sneak some fruit and sugar in the oatmeal.”

Well now Luca wasn’t going to suggest eggs for the boy, “Would you like to get waffles too?”

Klaus nodded before slowly saying, “I trust you, Mr. Vitali. If you think they’re good, they must be.”

_If you think they’re good, they must be._

Luca wondered if Klaus would think the same thing if he said Klaus was good.

Over the short time of knowing Klaus, he found that the boy had a wicked sense of humor, was very much an addict, and didn’t like himself much. Luca liked him fine, thought he was better than the drugs and whatever his dad did to him. 

Klaus’s face radiated pure joy when he ate the waffles.

Luca was glad he could give the boy something to be happy about.

He had to argue with Klaus to keep the coat. _It was my darling Rosa’s. It’s just been sitting in the house since she passed away. It will be nice to see someone using it again._

More time passed.

Then he started to see Klaus talking to empty air beside him. More than he did before, as if he was having a full conversation and not muttering to his drug fueled hallucinations. Klaus didn’t talk to whoever he saw when he was around Luca. Once in a while he’d mutter an aside, but he didn’t have the conversations that Luca saw from his shop. 

He did hear Klaus mutter the name Ben more though.

The first night he got Klaus to sleep in his shop since this started he looked the boy over, “Do you need another pillow?”

Klaus seemed very confused, “You’ve only ever given me the one?”

“For Ben,” Luca said, hoping he wasn’t pushing too much. 

He maybe did.

Klaus’s face broke and he glanced to his right. He was obviously listening to this Ben as well as trying to keep it together. “No, he-- he’s dead and--”

Luca nodded, “I’ll get him a pillow anyway.”

Luca figured Ben was someone important to Klaus and he couldn’t fault Klaus for talking to the dead. Lord knew he still talked to his family as if they were alive and with him. 

When he came back to the shop with his pillow (Klaus refused to sleep in his apartment now that Luca would be fine with it, said this was enough kindness and didn’t deserve more) he saw Klaus trying to stop his crying. Luca sat the pillow down next to Klaus’s and pulled him in for a hug.

“You’ll have to share blankets with Ben.” Klaus’s arms tightened their hold, tugging at his shirt. “And in the morning I’ll buy you boys waffles.”

And so Ben joined Klaus in staying at his shop. Luca never questioned the addition of the dead boy. He did find out that it was Klaus’s brother who recently passed away. Either this was how Klaus needed to grieve and thus needed as much support as Luca could give or Klaus’s mind broke a little more than it was and thus needed as much support as Luca could give.

But Luca started making space for Ben without questioning. A pillow to sleep on, a chair, a cup of coffee to let sit on the counter and get cold. He hoped it helped Klaus with what he was going through, hoped Klaus saw how Luca accepted him and how he accepted Ben.

After a year or two of knowing Klaus, he got a phone call from the hospital. He’d overdosed and Luca was his emergency contact.

He hadn’t known Klaus had held him in such regard. He knew Klaus had some siblings still alive, but he claimed they didn’t care about him. If they cared about him they’d help him sew pockets in his skirts. _Then I must not care about you, I don’t sew pockets in your skirts._ Sure, but Luca showed him the wonder of waffles so he’s exempt of the pocket rule.

When he got to the hospital, Klaus was in a room but asleep. Luca sighed and before sitting down announced to Ben which chair he was claiming. Sure, Ben wasn’t really there, just someone Klaus saw, but Luca always had a nagging _what if_. What if it really was Ben’s ghost. So even when Klaus was asleep, Luca was sure to talk to Ben.

“They want you to go to rehab,” Luca said, after Klaus woke. “I don’t have the money to send you there long enough for it to matter.” 

Luca would love to be able to pay for Klaus to get the help he really needed. But the store didn’t bring in a lot of income. He could pay for three days, tops. And Lord knew that Klaus didn’t have the money.

Klaus nodded, looking like he was listening to Ben, “Dad can pay. Old fart has an excess of money. It’ll be like a cheeky little postcard. _Still alive, wish you weren’t._ ”

He’d seen medical bracelets on Klaus before, once or twice. He wondered if he’d done this song and dance already. But maybe he’d let Luca support him. Klaus sure as hell wasn’t getting the support he needed from his real family, but maybe he’d be able to get support from his new family. From Luca and the ever present Ben. 

But no.

He stayed at his emergency contact, always knowing when Klaus overdosed. Klaus still refused to do more than sleep in the store. Even after a month in rehab he wouldn’t step foot in Luca’s apartment. _That’s for your family._

But Klaus was his family now, didn’t he see that?

And then Klaus dropped off the radar.

After years of looking after the kid, he was gone. Like a ghost.

He’d heard he was in rehab, then he heard his dad died and then he heard nothing.

It was after Reginald passed that he found out who Klaus was. That he was part of the Umbrella Academy and he could see the dead. It made Luca glad to know that Ben really was looking after his brother over the years. That Ben was more than a hallucination of a boy who needed more love and caring than he was granted.

But still.

No Klaus.

No calls from the hospital.

Luca _worried._

And then one day, when the sun was out, Klaus walked into the shop. 

The waif was no longer one anymore. He looked healthy, happy, _clean_. He was wearing a skirt, of course, and with a sly grin, he announced his presence with, “It has pockets!” He cackled.

Luca came around from behind the counter, where the pillows and blankets still lay. He wrapped Klaus in a tight embrace, “Don’t you ever do that again, Klaus.”

“What? Don’t get sober? Okay then, Mr. Vitali. I guess I’ll just go snort some coke.”

Luca lightly slapped Klaus on the head, “Idiot.”

It was then that a giant of a man walked in, looking very confused. “You speak italian?” He was speaking english.

“Uh, sure?” Klaus replied in kind, exiting the hug to point at Luca, “He’s my buddy.”

“Is that all I am?” Luca joked, “A buddy?”

Klaus rolled his eyes, “Mr. Vitali, this is my brother Luther.” He was speaking in english. 

“Is he as dumb as he is big? How did he not know you spoke italian?” Luca asked, not saying the comment in english.

Klaus laughed. He’d missed his laugh. Then he turned to the side, where Ben probably stood. “Oh! _Oh!_ Mr. Vitali!” He was very excited, “I can, it’s just!” Luca wasn’t sure what Klaus was building up to, he’d never seen him act like this before when suddenly there was a blue glow from Klaus’s hands and after a moment, a blue person.

“Ben?” Luca asked, turning to face the spirit.

“Mr. Vitali,” Ben smiled. “I wanted to thank you for always looking out for this dumb lug. And for never turning your back on him. On us.”

Luther blinked at them, probably not knowing what was going on. 

“Of course,” Luca said. “I think of you both as my sons.”

“Oh,” Klaus murmured, looking almost like he’d cry.

Luca faced Klaus again, “And I am proud of you.”

They spent the day like that, the four of them. After a bit Ben went back to only being seen by Klaus, but they didn’t exclude him from the conversation. Luca had never excluded him, which apparently was something Luther and the others did. They hadn’t believed their brother when he said Ben was still around. Luca had believed even when he didn’t know Klaus had powers. 

Luca always believed in Klaus. In his son.


End file.
